of letters and themes, which other writers
suppose to belong rather to syntax, are here subjoined as _parts of
Prosody_. In the exercises for parsing appended to his _Etymology_, the
Doctor furnishes _twenty-five Rules of Syntax_, which, he says, "are not
intended to be committed to memory, but to be used as directions to the
beginner in parsing the exercises under them."--_E. Gram._, p. 75. Then,
for his syntax proper, he copies from Lennie, with some alterations,
_thirty-four other rules_, nine of which are double, and all are jumbled
together by both authors, without any regard to the distinction of concord
and government, so common in the grammars of the dead languages, and even,
so far as I can discover, without any principle of arrangement whatever.
They profess indeed to have placed those rules first, which are eaisest
[sic--KTH] to learn, and oftenest to be applied; but the syntax of
_articles_, which even on this principle should have formed the first of
the series, is placed by Lennie as the thirty-fourth rule, and by his
amender as the thirty-second. To all this complexity the latter adds
_twenty-two Special Rules_, with an abundance of "_Notes_" "_Observations_"
and "_Remarks_" distinguished by these titles, on some principle which no
one but the author can understand. Lastly, his _method of syntactical
parsing_ is not only mixed up with etymological questions and answers, but
his _directions_ for it, with their _exemplification_, are perplexingly at
variance with his own _specimen_ of the performance. See his book, pages
131 and 133. So much for this grand scheme.

OBS. 15.--Strictures like the foregoing, did they not involve the defence
of grammar itself, so as to bear upon interests more important than the
success or failure of an elementary book, might well be withheld through
motives of charity, economy, and peace. There is many a grammar now extant,
concerning which a truly critical reader may know more at first sight, than
ever did he that made it. What such a reader will be inclined to rate
beneath criticism, an other perhaps will confidently pronounce above it. If
my remarks are just, let the one approve them for the other's sake. For
what becomes of the teaching of grammar, when that which is received as the
most excellent method, must be exempted from censure by reason of its utter
worthlessness? And what becomes of Universal Syntax, when the imperfect
systems of the Latin and Greek grammars, in ste